1 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:11,080 Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb. Joe is out sick today, and 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: normally we would have a new core episode of Stuff 4 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind for you, but we're going to 5 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:19,639 Speaker 1: go ahead and bust out the next Vault episode a 6 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: little early to just to give us a little more 7 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: breathing room here. So this is going to be the 8 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: Beast War and Apron Part two. Originally published on March 9 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:34,200 Speaker 1: twenty fourth, twenty twenty two. We hope you enjoy Welcome 10 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. Hey, 11 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is 12 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with 13 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,200 Speaker 1: part two of our series on animals cooking non human 14 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: animals and cooking in the sense of doing things to 15 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: food before they eat it other than applying heat. Because 16 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: in the last episode we talked about how humans are 17 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,839 Speaker 1: the only animals that regularly apply heat to their food 18 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: on purpose to cook it, but animals do all kinds 19 00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: of other interesting things to their food before eating it. 20 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: For example, we talked about birds that that sort of 21 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: butcher and smash up and process their their their animal 22 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: parts before they consume them in various ways, like the 23 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,759 Speaker 1: shrike making shish kebabs out of crickets and other critters. 24 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: And uh, was it the lambur guyer that would would 25 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: smash the bones or the turtles? Yeah? And you know, 26 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: I realized after a record of that episode that there's 27 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: another animal that cooks that is a part of my 28 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: weekly life that I forgot to mention. It's that little 29 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: puff on Instagram account in which a cat is made 30 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: to appear to cook various items to try to replicate 31 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: various sort of like TikTok cooking trends and crafting trends 32 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: um sometimes to great success, sometimes it results in disappointing failure. 33 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: Oh if if you're familiar with TikTok cooking trends, there's 34 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: one that I've seen by image alone. Do you can 35 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,400 Speaker 1: you explain the thing to me where somebody takes a 36 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: big old wad of hamburger meat and they wrap it 37 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: around dry pasta. What is that? Do you know what 38 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 1: I'm talking about? Well, I am only familiar with TikTok 39 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: cooking trends that have been featured on that little puff, 40 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: so I don't think I've seen the cat doing this 41 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: to hamburger made yet So I'm not the one to 42 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: answer that question. Well, I mean it sounds like a 43 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,519 Speaker 1: cat's idea. Well, to be clear, this cat is not 44 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: actually has not been trained to do anything. It's it's 45 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: just the appearance of a cat cooking that they have 46 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: created here trick photography. Yeah, cats lousy cooks. They're not, 47 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,239 Speaker 1: they're not interested in cooking. But to tie it into 48 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: our first segment here, you know, one thing that is 49 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: great about cats is cats are very clean. You know, 50 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: they enjoy it. They groom themselves, they clean themselves. They 51 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: lick all over to get the dirt out of the fur. Actually, 52 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: I don't know if that's why they lick. They lick themselves. 53 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: It appears to be for some kind of hygienic purpose. 54 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: I have no idea what it's actually for, but that 55 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,639 Speaker 1: mirrors some of the behaviors were about to talk about 56 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: in the category of animals washing their food before they 57 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: eat it. And Robert, I don't know about your house, 58 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: but I tend to be pretty fastidious about washing fresh produce. 59 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: Do you do the same, Well, you know, I don't 60 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:31,160 Speaker 1: want any grit in whatever I'm cooking, And certainly, depending 61 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: on the produce in question, you might get some grit 62 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: if you don't wash it off. Well, if I'm make 63 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: an ants on a log, I want to make sure 64 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: that I have a scrub my celery sticks off before 65 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: and then dry them, you know, before I actually start 66 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: applying the peanut butter, and said ants. Well, it turns 67 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: out this is one of the food preprocessing behaviors that 68 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: is not unique to humans. All kinds of animals exhibit 69 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: various washing behaviors. And I'm want to say washing with 70 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: scare quotes because in some cases this may actually be 71 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,400 Speaker 1: related to cleaning dirt or other materials off of the food, 72 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: and in other cases it may have a completely different purpose. 73 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: But in any case, it is taking a piece of 74 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: food and washing it, or doing something that looks like 75 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: washing with the help of water, that's right. I was 76 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: reading about some of this in a paper titled food 77 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: dunking Behavior by an Eurasian Jay by Dearborn and Gager, 78 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 1: published in the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. They 79 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,359 Speaker 1: point out that crows and ravens have been observed to 80 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: quote unquote wash their food and fountains before eating it, 81 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,280 Speaker 1: and they talk a little bit about how generally we 82 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:46,480 Speaker 1: see examples of this washing behavior in primates and birds 83 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:52,560 Speaker 1: washing or dunking, and in both birds and primates, the 84 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: two main theories seem to be that it's about washing 85 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: or removing a thin coating from the exterior the food, 86 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: which generally that what we're doing, or it's about making 87 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: the food easier to eat, which is not something we're 88 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,599 Speaker 1: usually doing if we're just washing our produce in the sink, 89 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 1: but it is what we're doing if we're say, dipping 90 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:18,559 Speaker 1: a particularly tough biscuit into a cup of tea or something. Yeah, 91 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,480 Speaker 1: this the old hardtack tradition, you know, armies of old 92 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 1: marching around or sailing around with hard tack biscuits a 93 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:26,960 Speaker 1: lot of times. Like, you can't even eat these things straight. 94 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,039 Speaker 1: You can't just bite into them. You got to like 95 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:31,400 Speaker 1: dip them into your gravy or some other kind of 96 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: liquid and then soften them up before you can consume. Yeah. 97 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: So some of the examples that they mentioned in this 98 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,920 Speaker 1: paper from other creatures are carrion crows eating dry bread. 99 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 1: This would be a situation where dry bread has been 100 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,839 Speaker 1: provided for them and they dip it before they eat it. 101 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: Kill deer have been observed washing muddy frogs off before 102 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: they eat them. The cacs have been observed doing the 103 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: same thing with sandy crabs. Captive monkeys have been a 104 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: deserve doing this with dry monkey chow. And then the 105 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,040 Speaker 1: Eurasian jay example studied in the paper I cited. It 106 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: involves the bird in question dunking an egg in water 107 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: and then eating it, though the researchers ultimately remained they 108 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,359 Speaker 1: remained unclear about what that was all about. Yeah, and 109 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, it seems like these washing, dunking, 110 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 1: or dousing behaviors are still they're still unknown, and we 111 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: still don't know exactly what the cause is that we 112 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:28,520 Speaker 1: have better ideas in some cases than in others. But 113 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: one thing I was thinking about is that, you know, 114 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,120 Speaker 1: it may depend on your anatomy how important it is 115 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: to douse something in external water before you eat it, 116 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: depending on how strong your salivary glands are, because we're 117 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: doing the same thing, but it happens in our mouths, 118 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: I mean, all the foods you eat. It gets kind 119 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:47,479 Speaker 1: of like coated in saliva and moistened that way, and 120 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: it helps lubricate the swallowing process. Doesn't that sound so appetizing. Yeah, well, 121 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:54,799 Speaker 1: I think we've we've touched on this before, but actually 122 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 1: quite recently, I think talking about food and digestion. But 123 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,600 Speaker 1: like the digestive process begins in the mouth, like this 124 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: is where food is initially masticated, broken up, broken down, 125 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,240 Speaker 1: partially liquefied, and then formed into that bolus that will 126 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: then have been be swallowed and continue the journey. You 127 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: don't want to be swallowing a dry bolus. No, no, 128 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 1: But next, I wanted to think about one of the 129 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: most famous examples of animals that appear at least to 130 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: wash their food before eating it, and that is raccoons. 131 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: This has got to be one of the cutest examples. 132 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:30,960 Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody out there on the Internet at this 133 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: point has seen the heartbreaking video of the raccoon with 134 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: a piece of cotton candy going to the water's edge 135 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 1: to wash it and then it dissolving, and the raccoon 136 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: looks just so sad. I don't think I've seen that one, 137 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: but I'm picturing it. I can imagine it. So I 138 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: found something out I didn't know before. You you know, 139 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:52,800 Speaker 1: the word raccoon. The English word raccoon is derived from 140 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:56,600 Speaker 1: a word originally in the Algonquian languages. But do you 141 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: know what the raccoon is called in German? No, what 142 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:02,720 Speaker 1: is it called? It is the vah bear, the wash bear, 143 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: the bear, the washes oh nice. And the same principle 144 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: shows up in its scientific name, which is procyon lowtour, 145 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: which means something like pre dog washer. So a raccoon 146 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: is something that's maybe not quite a dog, not quite 147 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: a dog yet, but it is associated with washing. And 148 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: this etymology carries over multiple languages where the raccoon is 149 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: known as something like the washing bear or the washing 150 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: dog or something like that, and it reflects one of 151 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: the most notable characteristic behaviors of the raccoon, which is 152 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: the fact that when they acquire a piece of food 153 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,080 Speaker 1: and there is water nearby, they will often dunk that 154 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:43,200 Speaker 1: piece of food in the water and then manipulate it, 155 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: kind of put it in the water and swish it 156 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:47,760 Speaker 1: around a bit, maybe feel at it, paw at it, 157 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: rub on it, and then retrieve it from the water 158 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: and eat it. And it gives rise to the idea 159 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,320 Speaker 1: that raccoons are meticulous, little neat freaks that they're I 160 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: don't know, hyper hygienic or germophobes or something washing every 161 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,600 Speaker 1: bit of dirt and grime from food before consuming it, 162 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: which is kind of funny when you think about other 163 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 1: feeding habits of raccoons you might be familiar with, such 164 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: as like getting into your garbage can and just eating 165 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:14,720 Speaker 1: the food in there, and they're not washing that food. 166 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:16,520 Speaker 1: They don't seem to be concerned about the dirt in 167 00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: that case. No, no, this is of course what it 168 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: has earned them the nickname trash pandas before, because they yeah, 169 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: there's straight up in the garbage can, or certainly they will. 170 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 1: They don't need to be by a stream to eat. 171 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: You can find poluty of evidence of raccoons eating without 172 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,400 Speaker 1: a handy washing station nearby. Right, So it's an activity 173 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:41,440 Speaker 1: that they do often enough that it's in the name, 174 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,319 Speaker 1: like they're clearly known for it, But they don't always 175 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: do it. It appears to be optional, occasional, but again 176 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: common enough that it has become a characteristic feature of 177 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 1: the species. And so there's a big question like what 178 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: are they doing. Are they actually trying to get dirt 179 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: off of the food, or are they doing something else? 180 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,319 Speaker 1: And there have been experiments that looked into this. So 181 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: one study I wanted to look at was by Malcolm 182 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,560 Speaker 1: Lyle Watson, published in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 183 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: London in nineteen sixty three, called a Critical Reexamination of 184 00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: food washing behavior in the Raccoon or procyon lowtour. Now, 185 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:25,160 Speaker 1: one thing this article says that I found alleged elsewhere 186 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 1: on the internet is that raccoon food dowsing behavior, and 187 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: it calls the behavior dowsing instead of washing to avoid 188 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 1: prejudging the issue of the purpose of the dowsing. Raccoons 189 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: put their food in water very often, but we don't 190 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:41,320 Speaker 1: know exactly why they're doing it yet, so they say 191 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: dowsing instead of washing. So dowsing behavior is something that 192 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:49,280 Speaker 1: the author here says is only seen in raccoons in captivity. 193 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,199 Speaker 1: But I kind of doubt that. I've just browsing around. 194 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: I've read plenty of reports of people saying they observed 195 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: this behavior in raccoons in the wild, so I don't 196 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: know about the only in captivity part. I guess the 197 00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:07,800 Speaker 1: detail here would be that in captivity one generally has 198 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: a readily available supply of water. There is like a 199 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: dish of water, or I did just watch that cotton 200 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:16,280 Speaker 1: candy video in the background. You know, this is a 201 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,560 Speaker 1: case where it looks like it is a raccoon in 202 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:22,080 Speaker 1: a captive environment and there is the water for it 203 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,679 Speaker 1: to drink from, so it makes use of set water. Right, 204 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 1: That's a good point. I mean, so captivity clearly provides 205 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: the right setting and opportunities for this behavior to be observed. 206 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 1: So maybe if it does occur in nature or if 207 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: it doesn't, either way, we can at least admit that 208 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:40,160 Speaker 1: the majority of the times humans are witnessing this behavior 209 00:11:40,200 --> 00:11:44,240 Speaker 1: it is in raccoons in captivity. But Lyle Watson says 210 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: before this study, opinion was divided into roughly two camps 211 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:52,080 Speaker 1: about what the purpose of raccoon food dousing was. He 212 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:55,559 Speaker 1: says that some researchers thought that raccoons were actually washing 213 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: their food, actively getting dirt off of it, and others 214 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: thought that they were moistening it to make it easier 215 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: to eat, you know, to essentially lubricate it for the mouth, 216 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 1: like we were talking about with the birds. And before 217 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:10,360 Speaker 1: we go on to the actual experiments, I just wanted 218 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: to note something from the paper that I thought was interesting. 219 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:17,960 Speaker 1: The author actually makes a table of observations of raccoons 220 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,440 Speaker 1: eating different kinds of foods and ranks them by which 221 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,199 Speaker 1: foods were doused the most often to the least often. So, 222 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:27,679 Speaker 1: if you look at this list, the foods that were 223 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:32,480 Speaker 1: doused the least often were things like corn oats and earthworms, 224 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:38,240 Speaker 1: and the foods that were doused the most often were crayfish, shrimp, 225 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:47,920 Speaker 1: water snails, land snails, crabs, locusts, cockroaches, muscles, clams, cherries, grapes, eggs, 226 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:50,040 Speaker 1: And I'm reading down the list now, so I'm getting 227 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: to about the middle. But one thing I thought was 228 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: interesting is that a lot of the food items that 229 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: are the most doused are animals that naturally live in 230 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 1: the water. So I think they're being given to the raccoon, 231 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:05,679 Speaker 1: probably already dead or out of the water when the 232 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,560 Speaker 1: raccoon receives them, But the raccoon is taking them to 233 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,319 Speaker 1: the water and dousing them and then eating them. Yeah, yeah, 234 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: that is notable on this this hierarchy here, though of 235 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:17,520 Speaker 1: course you know you look at it too, and you're 236 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: thrown for a curve on why the cherries are ranked 237 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:26,440 Speaker 1: so high, why the earthworm is ranked so low? Other 238 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: things seem to make you know a certain amount of sense, 239 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,560 Speaker 1: like okay, yeah, corn is more or less good to go, 240 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: same with a pair. But so this study tried a 241 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:38,199 Speaker 1: couple of experiments to test the reigning hypotheses, the food 242 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:42,200 Speaker 1: moistening hypothesis, and the active cleansing hypothesis. So as far 243 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: as the cleansing hypothesis, they said, okay, what if we 244 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: try giving raccoons food that is dirty and then food 245 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:51,840 Speaker 1: that we've already cleaned off, to see what the raccoons 246 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:53,600 Speaker 1: do with it. Will that make a difference, like will 247 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: they clean? Will they douse dirty food more than clean food? 248 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,680 Speaker 1: So this was tried with quote, small mud crabs, so 249 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:03,720 Speaker 1: they might forge for these in the wild and you 250 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,080 Speaker 1: might expect them to have mud on them. And so 251 00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:09,319 Speaker 1: raccoons in captivity were tested with clean crabs and dirty crabs, 252 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:11,559 Speaker 1: and what do you know, it made no difference at all. 253 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,240 Speaker 1: In fact, this was not a significant difference. But they 254 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:19,040 Speaker 1: doused the clean crabs more than the muddy crabs. Yeah yeah, So, 255 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 1: like if you're going to be desperate with findings from 256 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: this study, like this wouldn't even back up the idea 257 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: that they're washing anything exactly. So, according to this experiment, 258 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,120 Speaker 1: it makes no difference at all, just sometimes they dunk 259 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: and sometimes they don't, and it appears to have no 260 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,720 Speaker 1: relationship whatsoever to the amount of mud. So that's taken 261 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: as a hit against the act of cleansing hypothesis. But 262 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,960 Speaker 1: what about the moistening action idea? So what if the 263 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,440 Speaker 1: point of dowsing is too is that wet food is 264 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: easier to eat? Well, they tested this with an experiment 265 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: as well. So Lyle Watson says there was a series 266 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: of three trials with the choices between dry dog biscuits, 267 00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: dried shrim and similar objects which had been soaked in water, 268 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 1: and the result was again the raccoons showed no significant 269 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,920 Speaker 1: difference at all. They were just as likely to duncan 270 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: dous wet food objects as they were to douse dry ones. 271 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: So both of the active hypotheses at the time of 272 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 1: the study in nineteen sixty three were disconfirmed by the 273 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: experiments that Lyle Watson did. So what does the author 274 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:29,080 Speaker 1: here think that the dowsing is actually for Well, he 275 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: has an interesting idea. Of course this is not conclusive, 276 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: but this is his interpretation. He says that the best 277 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: explanation is that raccoon dowsing of food is quote, an 278 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: artificial creation of a natural situation whose function is to 279 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:48,560 Speaker 1: allow the expression of a thwarted independent feeding mechanism. So 280 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,440 Speaker 1: I think what he means by this is that a raccoon, 281 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:55,640 Speaker 1: when dousing food, is going through the motions of an 282 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: instinctual water based foraging or hunting strategy. That is, that 283 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,360 Speaker 1: is naturally rewarding, you know, in the same way that 284 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: that hunting or foraging behaviors are to all kinds of animals. 285 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,960 Speaker 1: You know, we're motivated to do them, and it's rewarding 286 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: to the raccoon's brain and associated with the acquisition of food, 287 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,760 Speaker 1: even though in these captive scenarios it's not actually doing anything. 288 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,640 Speaker 1: Now that's interest, because that would mean it's not adaptive. Well, 289 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:27,240 Speaker 1: it would be it would be adaptive that a raccoon 290 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:29,880 Speaker 1: has a natural desire to like fish around in the 291 00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:34,240 Speaker 1: water for food items, but that maybe this urge is 292 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:36,960 Speaker 1: so strong it's coming through even in moments where it 293 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: doesn't actually need to forage. It's just satisfying and overwhelming desire. 294 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: And he gives a comparison. So what Watson says his quote, 295 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,200 Speaker 1: the raccoon's behavior is perhaps most closely related to what 296 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: may be called the quote revitalizing behavior of certain feliday cats. 297 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,920 Speaker 1: A captive cat whose hunting patterns of behavior are starved 298 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: by virtue of the fact that all food is presented 299 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:04,400 Speaker 1: dead will artificially create the opportunity to satisfy these responses 300 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 1: by throwing a dead bird into the air and quote 301 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:10,439 Speaker 1: giving it life in order that it may be hunted 302 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,919 Speaker 1: down and caught before being eaten. This has been particularly 303 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 1: well observed in the Golden Cat or feel us Taminki 304 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: at the London Zoo and so yeah, in the same 305 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,320 Speaker 1: way that you might see a cat that doesn't actually 306 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: need to hunt, kind of batting a food item or 307 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: even like a dead mouse around as if like it's 308 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 1: still alive, and maybe the cat is trying to satisfy 309 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:38,639 Speaker 1: some need for hunting behaviors just because the hunting behaviors 310 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:43,120 Speaker 1: are instinctually rewarding. Perhaps the raccoon is doing something similar 311 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 1: by fishing around for a food item that it actually 312 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: already has in possession in the water m okay, and 313 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: so in this it would be comparable to like the 314 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,080 Speaker 1: play we observe in cats. We think of it as play. 315 00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:59,400 Speaker 1: They're playing with a toy, But it's of course hunting 316 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:02,960 Speaker 1: instinct that you know that they've they're highly evolved to 317 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,120 Speaker 1: partake in. And if it's even though there's nothing live 318 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: running around your living room, they need to engage in 319 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,720 Speaker 1: that kind of activity anyway, right, They have an instinctual 320 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:18,440 Speaker 1: drive for hunting behaviors. They can't actually hunt in their 321 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 1: environment because there's nothing to hunt, so they kind of 322 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,840 Speaker 1: hunt in superfluous ways, hunt in ways that are not 323 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:29,080 Speaker 1: really necessary and so and so. Lyle Watson links this 324 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 1: to the idea that this behavior is primarily observed or 325 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 1: in his in his belief, only observed in raccoons in captivity. 326 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,080 Speaker 1: You know, normally they'd be out fishing around for crayfish 327 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:42,879 Speaker 1: and crabs and stuff in the water. In captivity, they 328 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:45,879 Speaker 1: don't have to do that, so they satisfy this drive 329 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,680 Speaker 1: by swishing their food items around in the water. I've 330 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,359 Speaker 1: I remember hearing before that the like the hands of 331 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:56,080 Speaker 1: the raccoon are extremely subtle, yes, and that they're not 332 00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,040 Speaker 1: affected by the like they can reach into cold water 333 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,520 Speaker 1: and feel around in cold waters with a tolerance that 334 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,760 Speaker 1: humans are completely incapable of, and that their feeling of 335 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: things in the water is more in line with like 336 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: human sight, Like that's how sensitive their little hands are. 337 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:19,720 Speaker 1: So yeah, the sense experience of this, it makes sense 338 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,640 Speaker 1: when you think about like this, this sort of advanced 339 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:27,480 Speaker 1: grasping that's going on, this advanced sense of touch. Well, 340 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: that's actually the next thing I was going to get 341 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,719 Speaker 1: to that. That is the The other hypothesis that seems 342 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: to be live about why raccoons douse their food is 343 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 1: the idea that somehow it hyper charges the sensory abilities 344 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: of their paws. And exactly like you're saying, raccoons are 345 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: known in the animal world for having incredibly sensitive fore paws. 346 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 1: Apparently they gather a large proportion of their sensations of 347 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,919 Speaker 1: the world through touch, and of course this is very 348 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: useful if you're an animal that's like rooting around in 349 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:01,480 Speaker 1: muddy water for for prey. You know, you want to 350 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,639 Speaker 1: be able to get a lot of information by the 351 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 1: pads on your forepaws, on your hands and fingers, and 352 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,720 Speaker 1: so it has been argued that maybe the dowsing behavior 353 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:15,800 Speaker 1: is related to the hypersensitivity of their fore paws and 354 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: the importance of the sensory information they get there. So 355 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: perhaps moistening of the fore paws actually makes them more 356 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:28,120 Speaker 1: sensitive to textual information about the food in hand. So 357 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: if this hypothesis were correct, it would be that dousing 358 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: serves the purpose of letting the raccoon get better sensory 359 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 1: information about the food they are about to eat in 360 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,960 Speaker 1: the type of since realm that is most relevant to them, 361 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,360 Speaker 1: which is touch. So it would be sort of similar 362 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:47,160 Speaker 1: to a human looking at a morsel of food by 363 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: holding it up to the light so they could get 364 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,120 Speaker 1: a better look at it. Or you know, a dog 365 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:53,840 Speaker 1: really going to town sniffing a piece of food before 366 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:56,879 Speaker 1: they eat it. That it would be a specialized sense 367 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:00,639 Speaker 1: heightening behavior that is particular to the sense regime of 368 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,640 Speaker 1: the raccoon. Oh now this yeah, this makes a lot 369 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:05,680 Speaker 1: of sense, and at the same time, it also makes 370 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: that cotton candy video all the more heartbreaking because it 371 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,439 Speaker 1: really wanted to understand this. This uh, this sugary concoction. 372 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: What is this thing? Well, let me douse it in 373 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: the water and feel it a little bit more. What 374 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:22,159 Speaker 1: now it is completely gone? Now I have I know 375 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,760 Speaker 1: even less about it than I did before. But anyway, 376 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:27,399 Speaker 1: I'm intrigued by both of these hypotheses. I don't know 377 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,520 Speaker 1: which one I would lean more toward the sort of 378 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:33,679 Speaker 1: the hypercharging sensory data from the from the hands or 379 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:39,520 Speaker 1: the thwarted natural foraging behavior. Both seem possible to me 380 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: based on what I've read. The interesting thing about the 381 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:46,520 Speaker 1: idea of a thwarted foraging behavior is that it would 382 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,400 Speaker 1: seem to connect to that list of foods that are 383 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: doused most often, that the top of the list was 384 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: all like aquatic animals that the raccoon would naturally forage 385 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:05,880 Speaker 1: for in the creeks and in the mud. But Rob, 386 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: if you're ready, I would actually like to turn to 387 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 1: another example of animals doing something to their food that 388 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:15,800 Speaker 1: looks like washing but has been hypothesized to have a 389 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: different purpose altogether. And this is related to seasoning. So 390 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 1: in the last episode we spoken whispers of horror about 391 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: the idea of eating an unseasoned potato. You know, potatoes 392 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:33,040 Speaker 1: are great, They really need some salt and pepper, hopefully 393 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:36,320 Speaker 1: some fat of some kind, butter oil or something to 394 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 1: take them to their full potential. Just the thought of 395 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:46,400 Speaker 1: a completely unseasoned cooked potato is very unappetizing. Yeah, even 396 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,480 Speaker 1: if you have one of those those really good potatoes, 397 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,680 Speaker 1: you know, like those fingerlings, and the purple potatoes, and 398 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,920 Speaker 1: of course sweet potatoes. Even then they need a little something. 399 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,800 Speaker 1: And if you get into the realm of the Russets 400 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: all the more. Now, as always, of course, you know, 401 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,199 Speaker 1: our food preferences could be just cultural preferences. But I 402 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,480 Speaker 1: think it's clear that a really important part of human 403 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:11,760 Speaker 1: cuisine in general is seasoning. Maybe not to the same 404 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,440 Speaker 1: extent in every single culture in the world, but broadly 405 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,440 Speaker 1: all over the planet. People like to season their food, 406 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: and seasoning amounts to augmenting the natural flavors of bulk 407 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: food stuffs in our diet with highly flavor relevant little 408 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,800 Speaker 1: little bits of ingredients, usually things like herbs, spices, and 409 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 1: probably most importantly of all, salt. Now there's a reason 410 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 1: humans have a taste for salt. Salt is not just 411 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: a nice to have. It is biologically essential, not in 412 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: the quantities that we Americans eat it. You know that 413 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: we weigh more salt than we need. But you've got 414 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,359 Speaker 1: to have some salt. Without any salt, you would be 415 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,119 Speaker 1: in a bad place. And we talked about this to 416 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,199 Speaker 1: some extent in our episodes about the science of thirst. Remember, 417 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,080 Speaker 1: you know the things about how you've got to have 418 00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:01,879 Speaker 1: the right balance of osmala in your blood. Like the 419 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:06,679 Speaker 1: amount of substances, especially salt, dissolved in the blood is 420 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,040 Speaker 1: relevant to the functioning of cells. Without salt, your body 421 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: just doesn't really work. You need some salt. Yeah, And likewise, 422 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,800 Speaker 1: you're cooking a stew or a soup or just about anything, 423 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,119 Speaker 1: you often find yourself in that situation where you're adding 424 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,560 Speaker 1: salt to taste, and you know it's like, oh, it's 425 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,640 Speaker 1: not quite there yet a little more salt, not quite there, 426 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:26,560 Speaker 1: a little bit more salt. But the closer you get, 427 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,680 Speaker 1: the more stressful it can become, because you know that 428 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: if you oversalt it, there's not an easy way back. 429 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 1: There may not be a way back. That is a 430 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,880 Speaker 1: very good point. Especially, Yeah, if it's like one homogeneous 431 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: mass of food, like like a soup or something, it's 432 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: it's really hard to take the take the salt out, 433 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:44,400 Speaker 1: I guess, unless you just dilute it by adding more 434 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,640 Speaker 1: water or something, but then you screw up the other 435 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,639 Speaker 1: flavor ratios. Yeah, it's just you don't want to over salt. 436 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,359 Speaker 1: That's that's hard to fix. Yeah, baby steps. Now, lots 437 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,760 Speaker 1: of foods that we would find in the natural environment 438 00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: already have some salt content. You know, vegetables already have 439 00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,040 Speaker 1: salt to them. If you you know, like a like 440 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,199 Speaker 1: a stalk of celery actually is, you can almost taste 441 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,239 Speaker 1: that celery is naturally a little bit salty. You can 442 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,160 Speaker 1: sort of taste the sodium in there. Of course, meat 443 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,160 Speaker 1: already has salt in it naturally. Most people would add 444 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,560 Speaker 1: more salt to season it, but it has some sodium 445 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:21,639 Speaker 1: content there already, But we want more. And why is 446 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: it that we want more as well? It's because the 447 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,439 Speaker 1: concentrations of salt that we naturally find in meat and 448 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,840 Speaker 1: plants in the environment, it's fairly low, and salt is 449 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:33,400 Speaker 1: necessary for survival, so our bodies are shaped by evolution 450 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,920 Speaker 1: to seek out extra salt. However, we can get it, 451 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: and lots of animals acquire salt not just from food, 452 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 1: but from mineral reservoirs known as salt licks or more accurately, 453 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,240 Speaker 1: mineral licks. Again, because salt can, in the neurosense, be 454 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,840 Speaker 1: taken to imply just sodium chloride, and sodium is not 455 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: the only electrolyte or mineral that animals need to supplement 456 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,920 Speaker 1: in this way. Animals are also looking for calcium, iron, 457 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: zinc foss for us and so forth. But the idea 458 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: of a salt lick is interesting to me because I 459 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,800 Speaker 1: was reading about them, and what I had always pictured 460 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: for a salt lick when I was growing up was 461 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 1: that there's a deer, specifically a deer, and it's licking 462 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: a white rock that has the desired minerals on its surface. 463 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: And while this scenario does happen, apparently a lot of times, 464 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,040 Speaker 1: a mineral lick can also consist of a place where 465 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,199 Speaker 1: animals come to sort of eat dirt or mud or 466 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,399 Speaker 1: clay that has the molecules they're looking for. But of 467 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: course humans do something pretty interesting, which is that we 468 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:38,959 Speaker 1: combine the quest for supplemental salt with the broader quest 469 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:44,520 Speaker 1: for nutrition by salting food directly. The result is clearly 470 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:46,640 Speaker 1: more than the sum of its parts, because, after all, 471 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,600 Speaker 1: salt doesn't just make food taste saltier. I think humans 472 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: mostly know from experience that it makes food taste more 473 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,880 Speaker 1: like itself. A little bit of salt seems to magnify 474 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: the natural flavors present in whatever you're eating, So salt 475 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 1: makes chocolate taste more like chocolate, and salt makes broccoli 476 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:10,680 Speaker 1: taste more like broccoli. It's just a general flavor intensifier. Yeah, 477 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,439 Speaker 1: even things that don't need salt at all, Like a 478 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,600 Speaker 1: really good slice of watermelon is perfect on its own, 479 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,200 Speaker 1: and yet sprinkle a little salt on there, and you've 480 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,879 Speaker 1: managed to intensify even that. Yeah, it becomes hyper watermelon. 481 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 1: And because of these obvious you know, sensory and pleasure benefits. 482 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 1: The complement of supplemental salt to food. You might wonder 483 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:35,119 Speaker 1: we'll do any non human animals season their food like 484 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,360 Speaker 1: we do? Do they combine the quest for food with 485 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,199 Speaker 1: the quest for supplemental salt into a single consumption activity. 486 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,879 Speaker 1: And you might assume no, But I came across a 487 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,480 Speaker 1: really interesting surprise here. So I want to turn to 488 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,680 Speaker 1: a actually rather famous episode in the history of primatology, 489 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: but famous for a different reason than we're going to 490 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,360 Speaker 1: be talking about it, and that is the potato washing 491 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: monkeys of Koshima Eye and in Japan. Rob, Have you 492 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,280 Speaker 1: ever heard about these before? I don't believe I had. 493 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,639 Speaker 1: Some of this came up in my research, but I 494 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 1: knew that you had the primates firmly in your side here. Well, 495 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,520 Speaker 1: I want to briefly mention side a couple of papers 496 00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:18,440 Speaker 1: as sources here for what I'm about to talk about. 497 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 1: One is by Massau Kawai called Newly Acquired pre Cultural 498 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: Behavior in the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys of on 499 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: Koshima inlet in the journal Primates in nineteen sixty five. 500 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: And then the other one is a book chapter called 501 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:40,000 Speaker 1: Sweet Potato Washing revisited by Satoshi Hirada, Kunio Watanabe, and 502 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: Kawai Massau. The last author is the same as the 503 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 1: author of the paper from the sixties. This was published 504 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:49,880 Speaker 1: in Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior in two 505 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,240 Speaker 1: thousand and eight. So, first of all, one thing we 506 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:55,880 Speaker 1: should say is that everything we're about to describe is 507 00:28:55,920 --> 00:29:00,320 Speaker 1: not a behavior observed purely spontaneously in the wild, one 508 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,440 Speaker 1: that is, at least in part a result of human intervention. 509 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 1: So the entire story here comes with that caveat, but 510 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: it's very interesting nonetheless. So on the island of Koshima 511 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 1: in Japan, there are native populations of a monkey called 512 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,479 Speaker 1: the scientific name is Macaca fuscata, also known as the 513 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,080 Speaker 1: Japanese macaque or the snow monkey. You never seen one 514 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: of these, you should look them up. I think they're 515 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:25,760 Speaker 1: very cute they are. They're quite cute. They're very soft 516 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,720 Speaker 1: looking fur. I know one shouldn't feel this way about 517 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,920 Speaker 1: wild animals, but I want to pet them. But anyway, 518 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: Beginning with some papers published by a scientist named Shunzo 519 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:42,240 Speaker 1: Kawamura in the nineteen fifties, researchers began to document an 520 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:46,280 Speaker 1: interesting behavior among a single troop of monkeys on Koshima Island, 521 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,640 Speaker 1: and it was washing their food. So the history went 522 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:54,280 Speaker 1: like this. In the early nineteen fifties, several Japanese researchers 523 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: began providing food in the form of sweet potato pieces 524 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,280 Speaker 1: to the monkeys on the island, and I read in 525 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: a book passage elsewhere that the original purpose of giving 526 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: them the food like this was to lure the monkeys 527 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: out into an open space near the waterfront where it 528 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: would be easier for the researchers to watch them to 529 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,800 Speaker 1: observe their behavior. And I think part of the intended 530 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,920 Speaker 1: significance of this study was that the scientists would end 531 00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: up making long, multigenerational observations of the same monkey troop, 532 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,920 Speaker 1: with individuals in the troop named and differentiated so that 533 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: their individual behaviors could be documented. But of course, the 534 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: monkeys liked the extra food. They liked the sweet potato pieces. 535 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,840 Speaker 1: But the real twist came in September of nineteen fifty 536 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,960 Speaker 1: three when a young monkey, a one and a half 537 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: year old female named Emo, appeared to have invented a 538 00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:51,480 Speaker 1: new behavior. She washed her potato. And now washing was 539 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,080 Speaker 1: not previously part of the behavioral repertoire of these monkeys, 540 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,840 Speaker 1: but apparently Emo was reacting to the fact that these 541 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: sweet potato pieces left out on the ground, they would 542 00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: get covered in sand and dirt, which, even if you're 543 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 1: a monkey, is apparently not the best thing to eat. 544 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: So in September nineteen fifty three, Emo started washing the 545 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 1: sweet potatoes. So the standard sweet potato washing behavior is 546 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:19,320 Speaker 1: described as the monkey taking a sweet potato piece to 547 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,720 Speaker 1: the edge of the water and then dipping the potato 548 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,360 Speaker 1: into the water, holding it in one hand, and then 549 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,160 Speaker 1: removing the sand or grit by brushing the potato under 550 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 1: the water with the other hand. This potato washing behavior 551 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,640 Speaker 1: became famous because it was taken as evidence of the 552 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:42,800 Speaker 1: existence of quote culture in non human animals. Because, again 553 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,960 Speaker 1: according to mess El Kawai in the paper from sixty five, 554 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: by nineteen fifty six eleven monkeys in the troop had 555 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:56,200 Speaker 1: acquired the behavior and had themselves become potato washers, and 556 00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:59,560 Speaker 1: across subsequent research periods after that, the behavior continued to 557 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: spread to more and more of the troop. Now, we 558 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,000 Speaker 1: could probably come back into a whole episode on the 559 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 1: idea of whether this should be viewed as analogous to 560 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,120 Speaker 1: human culture. But on its face, it seems to have 561 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: a lot of properties that look like culture. It's a 562 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,920 Speaker 1: behavior that is not instinctual to the animal, but is 563 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,880 Speaker 1: learned and then is spread apparently from one individual to 564 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: the other in the troop through a process of copying, 565 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:27,000 Speaker 1: eventually becoming the norm for the entire animal troop. But then, 566 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: on the other hand, they're interesting questions about this and 567 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,680 Speaker 1: indifferences from how we normally think of culture. For one 568 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,800 Speaker 1: thing I thought was kind of interesting in this instance, 569 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: the learning process seemed to work backwards from the way 570 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:42,160 Speaker 1: human culture is presumed to pass across generations, because it 571 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,680 Speaker 1: looks like sweet potato washing started with younger monkeys and 572 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,640 Speaker 1: gradually spread to the older ones. Like they said that 573 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:54,480 Speaker 1: Emo's mother apparently learned the potato washing behavior from Emo. Oh, well, 574 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 1: I mean we mentioned TikTok trends earlier. Oh yeah, okay, 575 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: and you know, TikTok trends are often associated with youth culture, 576 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: so that could be a case, there could be a 577 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: case to be made. Well, yeah, you do have things 578 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 1: that originate with the young people, with the youth, and 579 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: then they are passed upward to older members of a 580 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: population of a culture. I guess. So, yeah, maybe it's 581 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:20,080 Speaker 1: the youth innovate and then the elders educate. But then 582 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,040 Speaker 1: certainly it does. It does run counter to the sort 583 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: of idea of elders in a given group saying this 584 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: is the way, this is the way we handle potatoes, 585 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,440 Speaker 1: this is the way we wash potatoes. Obey me, younglings. 586 00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: But but here's where we're about to get to the 587 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 1: part that's relevant to the idea of animals seasoning food. 588 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,560 Speaker 1: So I wanted to read a passage from that paper 589 00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 1: by Kawai in nineteen sixty five. The background of this 590 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 1: section is that the author is describing two distinct variants 591 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,920 Speaker 1: of sweet potato washing behavior, one in which the sweet 592 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: potato is like I described a minute ago, dipped into 593 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: the water with one hand and then brushed with the 594 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: other hand to remove sand. The other variant is known 595 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,920 Speaker 1: as quote rolling, and it consists of letting the sweet 596 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,000 Speaker 1: potato drop into the shallow part of the water and 597 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:09,800 Speaker 1: then rolling it back and forth with one hand before 598 00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,720 Speaker 1: retrieving and eating it. But now, to read from massau 599 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: Kawai quote but during the second period, a third type appeared. 600 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,320 Speaker 1: It consisted in dipping the potato into the water every 601 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:26,360 Speaker 1: time after knowing it once or twice. This behavior seems 602 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,760 Speaker 1: quite different from brushing the sand off from the potato. 603 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: They collect potatoes and take them to the seashore. But 604 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:36,480 Speaker 1: if this is not for the purpose of washing, what 605 00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: reason is there in this behavior except for seasoning the 606 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,520 Speaker 1: potatoes with saltwater. Therefore, I will call this behavior the 607 00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 1: seasoning behavior. Huh So, obviously the behavior of repeatedly dipping 608 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,520 Speaker 1: the sweet potato into saltwater every time the monkey takes 609 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:57,759 Speaker 1: a bite. That could have other interpretations, but the seasoning 610 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:01,319 Speaker 1: interpretation seems to be a pretty good one. Like why 611 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,879 Speaker 1: else would they be dipping it again every time they 612 00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,760 Speaker 1: take a bite off off of the piece of food. Yeah, 613 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,720 Speaker 1: you can see this as something that emerges out of purely, 614 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:15,319 Speaker 1: you know, the washing behavior. But then they grow to realize. Yeah, 615 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,400 Speaker 1: if the potato has been dipped in salt water, it 616 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: is more satisfying, and it of course is not only 617 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,839 Speaker 1: enhancing taste it is it is also supplying something that 618 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,000 Speaker 1: the monkey's body needs exactly. So I would say that 619 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: I think the seasoning interpretation of this behavior is not conclusive. 620 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,360 Speaker 1: We don't know for sure that's what they're doing, but 621 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:38,480 Speaker 1: it seems pretty valid, like it seems certainly on the table. 622 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: Of course, as we talked about before, a potato tastes 623 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:43,680 Speaker 1: so much better with some seasoning. The same goes for 624 00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: a sweet potato. So yeah, could it be that this 625 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,160 Speaker 1: is not only an example of cultural transmission in non 626 00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:55,759 Speaker 1: human animals monkeys learning a non instinctual behavior from one 627 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,000 Speaker 1: monkey to another within the troop, but also an example 628 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,520 Speaker 1: of cookery ulture, cuisine emerging. Yeah, yeah, I think that's 629 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:14,920 Speaker 1: a fascinating example. Now, in putting together these episodes, you 630 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,200 Speaker 1: assembled a list of different things that were part of 631 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: human food culture culinary practices that we were using a 632 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:29,560 Speaker 1: sort of a guide to try and look for behaviors 633 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,759 Speaker 1: in the animal world that yeah, more or less line 634 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: up with them. Like, for instance, we talked about the 635 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,520 Speaker 1: processing of food, the butchery practices of course, of the 636 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 1: butcher board, the shrike, the lambaguey er, you know, and 637 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:46,080 Speaker 1: to a certain extent, you could make an argument that 638 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 1: any kind of predator that doesn't eat its prey hole 639 00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: is engaging in some sort of butchery, right. It's if 640 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,600 Speaker 1: it's selectively eating parts of the corpse of the cadaver, 641 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,640 Speaker 1: then you could make it a week case for this. Yes, though, 642 00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,560 Speaker 1: when when I start thinking about human butchery, you know, 643 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,640 Speaker 1: one thing my mind goes to is like the classic 644 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:10,719 Speaker 1: butcher's tools, the tools you see next to the big 645 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:13,759 Speaker 1: old wooden block that the animal would be taken apart in. 646 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: Of course you've got your knives, and that would be 647 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,959 Speaker 1: related to, you know, the things we've already been talking about. 648 00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,239 Speaker 1: But another butcher tool you often see is that big 649 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:25,799 Speaker 1: old hammer. What's that hammer for? For tenderizing the meat? 650 00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:30,279 Speaker 1: So for many of our tougher foods, the material must 651 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,840 Speaker 1: be made tender prior to cooking and or consumption. The 652 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 1: tenderization of meat with a hammer or mallet or masher 653 00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:41,760 Speaker 1: is a great physical example of this, you know, and 654 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 1: you know it also essentially busts out some extra chewing 655 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: prior to cooking. You know, you don't want to spend 656 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,320 Speaker 1: x amount of extra time chewing that meat, or in 657 00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:53,760 Speaker 1: any cases, like chewing that potato or whatever it happens 658 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:56,600 Speaker 1: to be. Let's break it down a bit physically before 659 00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: it goes into our mouth. But of course we don't 660 00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,839 Speaker 1: just tenderize foods with hammers and mallets. We also tenderize 661 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:09,160 Speaker 1: them chemically via special enzymes as well as via mixtures 662 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,399 Speaker 1: like vinegar and broth. And when we apply a marinade, 663 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,359 Speaker 1: we're not only flavoring the matter we intend to cook 664 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:20,200 Speaker 1: and or eat, but also we're softening it up. And again, 665 00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,680 Speaker 1: this is a chemical breakdown that occurs inside the body 666 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:26,960 Speaker 1: as well, beginning in the mouth. Now, we've discussed some 667 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:31,520 Speaker 1: methods of externalizing this process before, and they bear at 668 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:36,040 Speaker 1: least equipment mentioned here. Houseflies consume their food is a 669 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:41,040 Speaker 1: liquid diet. So first a housefly scrubs food that it 670 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 1: finds with bristles on the end of its proboscis, freeing 671 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:49,000 Speaker 1: up food particles. So think of these like dusty food 672 00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: particles that the housefly has found, and then it vomits 673 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 1: up a slurry of saliva and digestive juices, and in 674 00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 1: doing this It's kind of like adding hot water to 675 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,879 Speaker 1: an oatmeal mix, you know. So if you're being very 676 00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:05,880 Speaker 1: generous with the term, you could say a housefly is 677 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:10,160 Speaker 1: cooking sort of, and then of course it slurps all 678 00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,520 Speaker 1: of it up. I love that. Yeah, So it's it's 679 00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:17,160 Speaker 1: cooking right from its own gut. Yeah. Spiders are also 680 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,839 Speaker 1: ane of the great example. They'll inject digestive juices into 681 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,880 Speaker 1: the bodies of their prey to break down the insides, 682 00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:27,200 Speaker 1: you know, particularly prey that's been paralyzed or wrapped up 683 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:31,439 Speaker 1: in webbing. And then after this these juices have had 684 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:34,839 Speaker 1: time to work, they can simply drink the insides of 685 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:36,759 Speaker 1: the prey that they have captured. I believe we did 686 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,719 Speaker 1: a whole episode on what this would be like, What 687 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:41,920 Speaker 1: would it would be like to be eaten by a spider? 688 00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:46,000 Speaker 1: It was called I Was Eaten by a Giant spider. Yeah, 689 00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,359 Speaker 1: that was a fun one. Yeah. Yeah. Now, it's also 690 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,800 Speaker 1: worth noting that these various means of tenderizing organic material, 691 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's also comparable to the process of decomposition, 692 00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:00,800 Speaker 1: So we might well loop in natural decomposition into this category, 693 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:04,600 Speaker 1: especially for scavenger creatures who take advantage of such conditions. 694 00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:07,759 Speaker 1: They can take advantage of food material that has been 695 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:13,200 Speaker 1: softened by decomposition, and they have evolved to tolerate levels 696 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,640 Speaker 1: of decomposition that other animals would not be able to handle. 697 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,200 Speaker 1: Now that that brings up another question, how about fermentation? 698 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:23,280 Speaker 1: That was another one we had on the list. Are 699 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 1: you know there are plenty of examples of animals that 700 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:28,840 Speaker 1: consume fermenting fruit, for example, but are there examples of 701 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,000 Speaker 1: animals that are more actively involved in the fermentation process. 702 00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:36,759 Speaker 1: I couldn't really find any good examples, but again we 703 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: could roughly file fermentation under the category of decomposition. So 704 00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:44,000 Speaker 1: animals like elephants, birds and monkeys that eat fermented fruit 705 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,960 Speaker 1: are also taking advantage of this process. And on that note, 706 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,240 Speaker 1: I'd like to touch on just a few examples of 707 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,680 Speaker 1: animals that get involved with a couple of other activities 708 00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:57,400 Speaker 1: that are that are highly important to human food culture, 709 00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:02,480 Speaker 1: the storing of food, but then all of agriculture itself. 710 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,000 Speaker 1: So first on the the just on the topic of 711 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 1: of hoarding food, of creating a cash of food that 712 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:14,560 Speaker 1: one can can turn to, especially during the winter. There 713 00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:16,719 Speaker 1: are numerous examples of this and we could easily talk 714 00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:20,719 Speaker 1: about chipmunks and squirrels and whatnot. But I wanted to 715 00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:24,320 Speaker 1: talk just a little bit about a superpredator of note 716 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:29,640 Speaker 1: um and that is the mole. Superspredator mole. Yeah, I mean, 717 00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:32,960 Speaker 1: if you're if you're an earthworm, the mole is the 718 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:36,400 Speaker 1: the ultimate destroyer. It is the superpredator of the earthworm world. 719 00:41:37,239 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: It eats nearly its weight in worms and similar subterranean 720 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: creatures every day. Uh and uh, it's it's impressive, but 721 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 1: of course this is standard hunt and eat behavior, right, 722 00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:51,200 Speaker 1: nobody's going to accuse the mole of engaging in uh, 723 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,600 Speaker 1: you know, culinary activities here by gobbling it's it's weight 724 00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:58,040 Speaker 1: in earthworms every day. But where it begins to mirror 725 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:00,439 Speaker 1: some aspects of human food culture is that, like many 726 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:05,640 Speaker 1: other animals, moles also stockpile food for leaner times. While 727 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:10,080 Speaker 1: various rodents famously stockpile nuts and human stockpile all sorts 728 00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:14,319 Speaker 1: of foods, the mole creates a horrifying subterranean dungeon of 729 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:18,280 Speaker 1: living worms. And this is an example of larger hoarding. 730 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:23,239 Speaker 1: Whoa living worms, yeah, or in some cases you might 731 00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:27,040 Speaker 1: say sort of half living worms. I guess it creates 732 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:30,879 Speaker 1: a limbo of worms. A limbo of worms. Yeah. So 733 00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,720 Speaker 1: I was reading about this in a Tree Hugger article 734 00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:38,400 Speaker 1: by Russell McClendon citing a Mammal Society a Species Overview article, 735 00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,600 Speaker 1: and it points out that the moles have a worm 736 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:44,920 Speaker 1: paralyzing toxin in their bite, but they also will just 737 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:49,160 Speaker 1: bite the heads of an earthworm to ensure a debilitating 738 00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:53,759 Speaker 1: but non fatal injury to said worm. And then you know, 739 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,000 Speaker 1: they'll eat a lot of worms obviously, but then they'll 740 00:42:56,040 --> 00:43:00,839 Speaker 1: start dragging them away and they'll create these chambers full 741 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,680 Speaker 1: of still living worms that they can munch on through 742 00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,600 Speaker 1: the leaner months. Single mole chambers have been found to 743 00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:13,560 Speaker 1: contain as many as four hundred and seventy live earthworms, 744 00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:16,399 Speaker 1: So that's about eight hundred and twenty grams or one 745 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:21,360 Speaker 1: point eight pounds of still living, still writhing earthworms for 746 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,840 Speaker 1: them to eat. Wow. This one, like I said, I 747 00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,239 Speaker 1: feel like it's a more grizzly and alarming example of 748 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,319 Speaker 1: the sort of thing we're used to. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, 749 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:31,120 Speaker 1: it's the storing nuts for the winter. Now this is 750 00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,560 Speaker 1: storing live earthworms and a big dungeon for the winter. 751 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,439 Speaker 1: Now we would be remiss if we didn't at least 752 00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:40,160 Speaker 1: touch on a topic that, of course I think we've 753 00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:44,000 Speaker 1: we've discussed in greater length before in the past. But 754 00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:49,680 Speaker 1: bee honey. You know, this is the sweet food stuff 755 00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:51,520 Speaker 1: produced by the honey bee as well as some other 756 00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:55,640 Speaker 1: bee species, and honey is basically yes bee vomit. We 757 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,480 Speaker 1: have enzyme activity playing a role in this, as well 758 00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:05,080 Speaker 1: as water evaporation transforming mere sugary organic secretions of usually 759 00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:09,160 Speaker 1: plants into an ideal storable food. So in this example 760 00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:14,759 Speaker 1: we see both food production and storage. So it's one 761 00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:18,120 Speaker 1: we're all familiar with. We all know where honey comes from. 762 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,400 Speaker 1: We know the miracle of honey. It's one of the 763 00:44:20,480 --> 00:44:24,760 Speaker 1: great achievements of the animal world, certainly the insect world. 764 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,399 Speaker 1: But it's also when we're so familiar with we kind 765 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:30,160 Speaker 1: of it's easy to forget the wonder of it, to 766 00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,239 Speaker 1: overlook the wonder of what is being achieved here. And 767 00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:37,080 Speaker 1: then another prime example from the insect world concerns the 768 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,480 Speaker 1: marvel of the leaf cutter ants, of which there are 769 00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,680 Speaker 1: around I think forty seven identified species. They cultivate their 770 00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:47,520 Speaker 1: own crop of fungus, growing it on harvested leaf clippings. 771 00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:51,520 Speaker 1: In some cases, these fungus species are entirely dependent on 772 00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:55,080 Speaker 1: their ant masters. You know, we're talking like extinct in 773 00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,960 Speaker 1: the wild situations, but it is I mean, these are 774 00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:04,160 Speaker 1: these are and complex societies of these leaf cutter ants. 775 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:07,800 Speaker 1: But what they are practicing here is agriculture in a nutshell, 776 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:10,439 Speaker 1: and they've been practicing it for a period of time 777 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:14,520 Speaker 1: that dwarfs human agricultural practice. They got a stew going 778 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:16,879 Speaker 1: they do. Yeah, So, I mean, I think it's neat 779 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,360 Speaker 1: to kind of look at some of those examples, especially 780 00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:23,920 Speaker 1: because they kind of forecast what humans would come to do. 781 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,800 Speaker 1: Like what humans are doing with their food is certainly 782 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:30,400 Speaker 1: an advanced model compared to anything going on in the 783 00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:34,320 Speaker 1: human world. But it's not unconnected. It's it's not an island. 784 00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:39,520 Speaker 1: You know, you see shadows of what we are doing 785 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:44,680 Speaker 1: in these other practices, in these other approaches to life, 786 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:47,279 Speaker 1: and so yeah, what we're doing is just kind of 787 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:51,719 Speaker 1: the the human complication of that. All right, we're gonna 788 00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:54,880 Speaker 1: go and close out this episode, but you know, we 789 00:45:54,960 --> 00:45:57,200 Speaker 1: would love to come back in the future and discuss 790 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:01,359 Speaker 1: the cuisine of non animals a bit more so if 791 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:04,919 Speaker 1: you have particular favorite examples of this, or if there's 792 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:06,680 Speaker 1: something in the animal world that you would like to 793 00:46:06,719 --> 00:46:09,839 Speaker 1: personally make a case for, or is just something you've 794 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 1: observed right in and let us know, we'd love to 795 00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:15,040 Speaker 1: hear from you. And you know, we were just chatting 796 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:16,880 Speaker 1: a few minutes ago off Mike that you know, there 797 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,600 Speaker 1: are a number of different leads for this episode that 798 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: we didn't have time to look into. So yeah, we 799 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:23,640 Speaker 1: could easily come back in the future and do a 800 00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:28,560 Speaker 1: third episode if you the listener desires it. In the meantime, 801 00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,120 Speaker 1: if you would like to check out other episodes of 802 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:33,040 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind Core episodes on Tuesdays and 803 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,320 Speaker 1: Thursdays and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed 804 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,920 Speaker 1: Listener Mail on Monday, Artifact or Monster Fact on Wednesday, 805 00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,719 Speaker 1: and on Fridays we do Weird House Cinema. That's our 806 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,480 Speaker 1: time to set aside most serious matters and just focus 807 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,279 Speaker 1: in on a strange film. Huge thanks as always to 808 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,879 Speaker 1: our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would 809 00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:52,920 Speaker 1: like to get in touch with us with feedback on 810 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:55,080 Speaker 1: this episode or any other to suggest a topic for 811 00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,400 Speaker 1: the future, just to say hello, you can email us 812 00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:08,239 Speaker 1: at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Stuff to 813 00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:11,560 Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts 814 00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:14,719 Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 815 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:28,439 Speaker 1: or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.